As internet users, in the best of times we seem quite uneducated; in the worst of times we seem downright ignorant. Anyone with a voice (read: everyone with internet access) has an opinion to scream, often as loudly as she can, at the rest of the world. It is an unfortunate state of affairs when the only thing worth commenting about on a Youtube Video seems to be how unintelligent all the other commenters are. The easier it is for users to generate content, the more inhumane it seems to be…
However, such is the right of anyone in America. If people are forced to digitally sign their work (as on Facebook and on Twitter and on blogs, where peoples’ real identities are used) they become much more civil. When reputations are on the line, people show tact, remorse, and humanity. While it is definitively ignorant, it is also quite insightful toward the psyche of American society. I may not like it, and I may even hate it, but I am prepared to accept the reality that everyone hates everyone else if it is convenient and anonymous to do so.
We read books like Never Eat Alone and Wikinomics wherein the authors take it upon themselves to teach moral behavior, and these ideas are LAUDED as revolutionary. Is it really that hard to grasp that we should help each other out? Are we so scared of the evil menace of communism that allowing people free access to things is considered a SIN? Are we so far removed from any civility and compassion that we cannot give favors without expectations for repayment? Why do we need paradigm-shifting books to recall that we are a community of social creatures; that we are raised by people and helped every step of the way. This isn’t merely trading and bartering, this is the reality of human life–people depend on other people.
The only reasonable course of action at this unkind juncture of human history is, rather obviously, to restrict all freedoms until people learn to behave. The First Amendment should forever be stricken from the US Constitution and people should never speak again. Does it sound unreasonable? Nah, not to me; not when people act like this.
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Did you know that there is a giant picture of your face in the CRC?
Yea it’s pretty sweet
There used to be one on the outside wall of the Reitz also but they took it down and gave it to me.
Now, there is a giant poster of my head in my room at home.
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